Or Hats On in Josiah’s case! His latest obsession is wearing a baseball hat. This started this summer when he got a Buzz & Woody hat from G’ma Jeryl, Papa Ronnie and & Aunt Joni. I have to admit, with him being as fair skinned and blonde as he is, it was so nice having him wear the hat when we were outside. However, his hat wearing isn’t just limited to when we are outside or even conscious. Take a look……

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And my personal favorite:

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Anya & Josiah have THE world’s best babysitter. Look what they were doing when I picked them up the other day:

Among all the fighting, toy-taking, crying, bickering, hitting and all the other things that brothers and sister’s do to torture each other, moments like these happen. And then you remember how much they really do love each other.

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Because sometime, just 1 blanket isn’t enough!

Yesterday was certainly a day of festivity.  Not only was it Easter Sunday, a day to rejoice in our Risen Savior, but it was also Josiah’s 2nd birthday.  What a fun day of family, food and celebration!

Josiah is certainly one lucky boy having so many friends and family come to help him celebrate his official transition to toddler hood.  He has been on new-toy overload all day wandering from one to the next trying to figure out exactly what they all do.  The kids also had an Easter egg hunt thanks to Papa Jim the Easter Bunny and had fun tracking down all the crazy places some of the eggs ended up.  Josiah had to work hard to blow out the candle on his tractor cake and he finally managed to get it on the 5th or 6th try!

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It was truely a great day and we want to thank everyone who came to celebrate with us.  We also hope everyone had a blessed Easter!

Here are our Easter and Birthday celebration pictures….enjoy!

…..sunshine!  How we have missed you!!

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We haven’t been up to too much around here other than playing outside and soaking up as much sunshine as we possibly can.  After a very long winter, everyone in this household is enjoying getting outside!  The first couple of days that it was warm enough to play outside, the kids couldn’t figure out what they wanted to do first–they wanted to do EVERYTHING!  What a great feeling to see spring arriving and everything (including our spirits) wake up from a long winter nap!

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Unfortunately, our outside play doesn’t come without the risk of injury, as we found out this last weekend.  Sunday afternoon while we were enjoying a nice afternoon playing outside with our new neighbors, Josiah tripped and ended up with a stick in the eye.  I haven’t ever seen an eyeball bleed before, and trust me, it’s not pretty!!  So, off to urgent care we went.  Thankfully it all ended up being OK–just a nasty scratch on his cornea on the white part of his eye.  His eye still looks pretty rough, but the injury doesn’t seem to be slowing him down.

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The worst part for him is the eye drops he has to get every 4 hours.  If anyone wants to see how strong an almost-2-year old can be, come on over when it is time for his eyedrops…watch out!!

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….how happy Josiah would be to have his own pair of crocs?

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Now he doesn’t have to wear his sister’s pink ones anymore!

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Who needs an alarm clock when you have a little brother??

I am happy to report that Josiah’s biggest triumph as of late was ditching the pacifier! YEAH!!! Again, as I did with Anya, I spent more time worrying about how the transition would go than was necessary. I decided suddenly one night that it was time to de-pacifier him and we haven’t looked back since. We had a few somewhat rough nights at first, but for the most part, it was a huge success and we are a much happier household now that we aren’t scrambling to find a pacifier every 2 seconds! I wish I had some big secret to reveal or could get some huge parenting kudos for how both my kids kicked the paci habit so quickly and easily, but I think it all boils down to one thing: WE LUCKED OUT!!! No one realizes this more than me!

…..to be outside. Not to be a Hawkeye fan!

This last week we were lucky enough to have Aunt Joni stay with us. I enjoyed having an extra pair of hands to help me out and the kids enjoyed having someone extra to play with. The week went too fast and we are already looking forward to having her back next year!

Over the weekend we went to Winfield so G’ma Jeryl, Papa Ronnie & Joni could watch the kids while Jason & I went to the Iowa game. It was an absolutely gorgeous day to be outside & I was in heaven being able to wear shorts in November! Unfortunately the game wasn’t as enjoyable as the weather, so now we are hoping the Hawks can regroup for the big game this weekend against Ohio State!!

In other news, Josiah had his 18 month checkup last week checked in at 25 lbs and 33 inches. He jumped up a little on the height chart to the 50-75 percentile, so that was a nice surprise. I am still not holding out much hope for having a 6 footer in the house, but you never know We saw a different pediatrician for this appointment b/c our regular ped is on maternity leave and the new pediatrician couldn’t get over how talkative and interactive Josiah was with her. In fact, when she walked into the room Josiah let out a loud “HI” and ran right over to her & she said she thought she had the wrong room b/c most 18 month old kids run & hide at the sight of someone unfamiliar, yet alone a doctor. Yep that’s my child…..willing to run right into the arms of a stranger